Having been burned a while
back when making overseas phone calls, I quickly became educated in the benefits
of using a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system when I took a trip
to China last year. With that phone (and a copy of my hotel destinations handy),
my wife was able to give me a wake up call every morning in what ever hotel room
I was in with the phone at a cost of less than three cents a minute. It was a
great way of keeping in touch while I was traveling and her at home and made the
trip more fun for both of us.

But the more I used it,
the more I didn't like some of the features of that phone so when I was at the
CES show in January, I discovered that there were many more options than going
with one of the big phone companies or Vonage. Those options tend to charge you
$20 plus a month for full service and I was interested in something I could use
on my own terms and was a bit easier to use than the TalkPro phone I had.

The VoIP Voice Internet
Phone, http://www.voipvoice.com/,
attracted me because of the new Cyberphone K's style, feel, and it looked neat.
It is a solid piece of equipment and it looks neat.

What also attracted me to
it was that it used a new to me, internet calling service called Skype, www.skype.com
an internet calling community with software that you can actually download to
your computer and use without having any phone at all. It uses your sound card
and a microphone connected to your computer to make your calls.

Skype is actually quite interesting in that they have the software available for
Mac OS X, Widows, Linux, and Pocket PC. Skype works by allowing you to make free
internet calls to other Skype users and if you need to call a land line, you use
the SkypeOut feature to make calls at a very inexpensive rate.

Start with the Install CD
that came with the phone before you plug in the phone which comes with a USB
connection. One thing I like about the phone is that it is heavy and has the
cords built into it so you don't have some flimsy cables to deal with.

The software installs
quickly and in my case, discovered that there was a newer version of Skype on
the web so it downloaded it and installed it for me. Of course, the first thing
you do is to agree to the EULA (End User License Agreement), and as I saw
language I couldn't understand, decided to take a closer look. One thing I
noticed was the clause that states in tiny print:

No
Emergency Calls: by entering into this Agreement You acknowledge and agree that
the Skype Software does not and does not intend to support or carry emergency
calls. Please also see article 7 below

Or, how about this part of
the Eula:

3.2.2 You will constantly monitor the Skype Website in order to ensure that
You are distributing the latest stable version of the Skype Software as well as
that You are aware of any changes in the applicable legal documents. In the
event You cannot agree on any changes in any applicable legal document, You will
immediately cease any and all use of the API and, where applicable, any and all
use of the Skype Software.

Once Skype is loaded, it
becomes resident on your computer and will load each time you start your
computer. The VoIP package doesn't' include a quick start guide and the
software doesn't tell you what to do next so you just plug in your phone. Skype
will alert you to tell you that something else is trying to use the software but
that is ok. From here, you need to go to the Skype window on your computer and
you will find it in the task bar near the clock.

You can make Skype to
Skype calls free of charge but if you want to call any other number, you need to
add money to your Skype account. It takes you to their web site where you can
enter your credit card information and start with a minimum of 10 Euros in the
account. The site is secure but when I shop online, I use a secure one time only
credit card number I get from my credit card company to make absolutely sure. It
takes about 15 minutes before the account is updated and you can start to make
your calls. One thing to keep in mind is that you may lose your account credits
if you don't use it for 180 days so you should use your minutes.

Skype is like a big
instant messenger service in that you can put in a profile so that people can
search for you and call you. Since I have enough people bugging me on AOL IM, I
decided to leave all my profile information blank. I really want to use this
phone to call other land line based numbers and for overseas calls. But looking
over the people that have signed up and it is quite a list. In fact, when you
startup a call, the status window tells you that there are 1.6 million people
online.

The handset is comfortable
to use and has some interesting features. There is a plug for a headset so you
can talk hands free and there are other calling features like a mute button, and
some extra buttons to make dialing easier.

To make a call, you can
either pick someone from your Skype dialing list or enter it on the computer's
dialing window or through the key pad on the phone. Just lifting the handset
brings up the Skype dialing window. However, when I entered a phone number, I
would get an error message telling me to enter a plus sign before dialing the
number. Kind of difficult to do that with a keypad with no plus sign. Digging
around more on the Skype web site and a quick email to my contact tells me that
I can substitute 00 for the plus sign. Because I couldn't get it to work, I
thought that had to have the computer shut down and restarted before it works
properly. Once that part was settled, making a phone call became much easier.
You do have to remember the dialing rules. For instance, when using my cell
phone to make a call, all I dial is the 10 digit number. Make that same call
from a traditional land line, you must dial 1 first. With Skype, you must dial
001 first.

Finally, I can make my
calls. And it works just fine. I made several calls and found the quality of the
sound was just fine. Hearing the problems some friends have with Vonage, I also
tried downloading some large files to see if they would interfere and other than
the occasional piece of static, I did not miss any of the conversation at all.
More calls over the month will let me know how well this works but for now I can
say that it was worth the effort to get connected. One thing to remember
though, is that at this time, there is no way to get a call into your phone from
the outside world. But as demand gets higher, that might change as well. People
calling you from the outside world still need to use a land line.

Some time ago I did a rate comparison of phone calls made with a variety
of services to different overseas locations and found in updating that listing
that Skype rates are some of the best you can get for overseas calls. Drop me a
note if you would like to see that updated article. An interesting note is that
if you call a phone with caller ID, the call says it is coming from
000-012-3456. You can buy this phone directly from VoIP Voice at www.voipvoice.com
for $60 including shipping.

Robert Sanborn
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Robert Sanborn is a
technology Writer for PC Lifeline. You can reach him through the net at
robert@pcll.com